


fake smile

by bluesxrgent



Series: thank u, next - elu [5]
Category: SKAM (France)
Genre: Communication, Fluff, Kissing, Light Angst, Love, M/M, Makeup, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-11-12 06:21:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18005504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluesxrgent/pseuds/bluesxrgent
Summary: A continuation of "bloodline" because I couldn't just leave it like that ;)Aka the iconique reunion scene at the end of ep 7 (and how I want it to go)Inspired by "fake smile" by ariana grandePart 5 of thank u, next inspired elu oneshots





	fake smile

**Author's Note:**

> Listen,, this is pure wish fulfillment,, I am fully aware I've got my clown makeup on 
> 
> (this is also a long one I got carried away...)

In a turn of events, Eliott had apparently told Daphné that he couldn’t work on the mural anymore, so Lucas was once again sucked back into the refurbishment of the foyer. Luckily he’d painted the whole wall white and finished the design outline so all Lucas had to do was fill it in. He enlisted help from Yann, Arthur, and Basile to finish, partly because he knew they had nothing better to do, partly because he didn’t want to be at school late on a Friday alone, and partly because he was glad to be able to be himself around them once again. 

“Fuck, Lucas, I know we said we’d help with this, but this design is way too damn complicated,” Yann said, inspecting the outline from all angles. Basile nodded quickly in acknowledgement, and Arthur looked inclined to agree. 

Lucas groaned, “Come on, guys. It’s not too bad… do you really want Daphné to murder us?”

Basile opened his mouth but Lucas cut him off before he could speak. “Actually, don’t answer that. I don’t want to know.”

“We don’t even know what colors we’re supposed to use,” Yann pointed out. 

“And my glasses are still broken, I can’t see too well,” Arthur added. 

Lucas rolled his eyes. “Guys, I don’t want to do it either, but what else do we have to do instead?”

“Oh, you know, another night, another party, saying hi to everybody…” Arthur trailed off. 

“We’re missing a party for this?” Basile chimed in angrily. 

Arthur put his hands up in mock surrender. “No, no, I’m just saying, I’m sure we could find one if we really wanted to.”

Yann, Arthur, and Basile continued their jovial bickering without Lucas, whose eye had caught on something next to the trash bin. He walked over and bent down to pick up a small sheet of paper, opening it up to see what it was. 

His heart nearly stopped. It was another drawing from Eliott, though he wasn’t sure if he was meant to see this one. It seemed more likely that Eliott had drawn it after their confrontation the other day and tried to throw it away, not realizing he had missed his mark. 

On the left side there was a hedgehog and a raccoon, the former wearing an angry expression with a bandaged hand. Lucas wrinkled his brows in confusion. His hand hadn’t been bandaged since the week before. Regardless, the hedgehog had a text bubble above his head that said ‘I can’t do this anymore’. The raccoon stood taller than the raccoon, but the drawing made him appear small in a way that pained Lucas’ heart, especially if this was how Eliott saw himself. The raccoon didn’t have a text bubble, but there were tears in his eyes. 

On the right side of the paper there was the same, sad looking raccoon, surrounded by darkness. All around it were different words, crossed out and written over many times. Lucas couldn’t make out all the words, but some phrases that stuck out were ‘I can’t fake another smile, I can’t fake like I’m all right,’ ‘Who said you were the only one that fell in love?’, ‘You’re better off alone anyway,’ ‘I would do anything to kiss you again,’ ‘You are the only L in my life,’ and, most heartbreakingly, ‘Lucas je t'aime’ written over and over. 

“Lucas?” Yann yelled, bringing him back to the present. He wondered how long he had been standing there in a daze. “Lucas, everything ok?”

He shook his head involuntarily, causing the others to make their way over to him quickly. Arthur was the first to arrive, glancing down at the paper in his hands. “What’s that?”

When Lucas didn’t answer, Yann held out his hand and Lucas gave him the drawing. “Eliott?” he asked, and Lucas nodded in the same dazed fashion. 

“Eliott?” Basile asked, peeking over Yann’s shoulder. “Who’s Eliott?”

Yann looked at Lucas with wide apologetic eyes. Lucas shrugged, he was bound to have to explain everything that had happened between the two of them at some point. 

“He’s the one who started the mural,” Lucas said, hoping Arthur and Basile would catch his drift. His mind was preoccupied by the contents of the drawing at the moment, so he couldn’t provide the explanation they were looking for.

Arthur looked from the drawing to Lucas, then back to the drawing again, comprehension dawning on his face. “You’re the hedgehog?” 

“Why does no one ever assume I’m the raccoon?” Lucas mumbled, causing Arthur’s eyebrows to shoot up. 

“First of all, you  _ are _ a hedgehog, look at your hair, and second of all, this isn’t the first time he’s made a drawing like this?”

Lucas hesitated. “No.”

“I thought you said there was nothing going on between the two of you anymore?” Yann asked, confusion and hurt mingling in his voice. Lucas shook his head. “There isn’t. Or, wasn’t. I saw him Wednesday, when we were supposed to work on the mural, and I kind of… went off on him.”

“In what way?”

“I just told him that he should have thought twice before playing me, that he couldn’t string me along when he still had a girlfriend to go back to when he got bored of me, and that we were done.” It sounded a lot harsher when Lucas was reiterating it, but in the moment he’d had to get his feelings off his chest and let Eliott know what all of this had meant to him, the damage he’d caused. 

Yann whistled. “Harsh, bro, but good for you. Do you think he meant for you to find this?”

“No, I don’t think so. I found it next to the trash.”

Yann bit his lip and looked to Arthur, who seemed to agree with whatever silent conversation Yann was trying to have with him. Basile looked hopelessly lost, which was just as well.

“Don’t get mad at me…” Yann began, which was always a good place to start. 

“Yann what are you--” Lucas ran his hands through his hair worriedly, but Yann spoke over him. 

“I think you need to tell him you saw this, or text him, or something,” he finished. 

“Yann, no, I can’t--”

“Lucas, you told me this dude didn’t give a shit about you, but what I’m seeing here clearly contradicts that.” Yann looked ready to go on defense at any moment, but also stern, like he wasn’t going to give in to Lucas so quickly. “Text him. If there’s a chance at something, isn’t that better than nothing?”

“I don’t know…” Lucas sighed.

“Wrong. The answer is  _ yes _ ,” Arthur corrected. “I’m not going to tell you how to live your life, but Eliott clearly feels very deeply for you, and I think it would be a mistake to throw that all away because of a little miscommunication. If you talk to him and he doesn’t seem interested, move on, but you never know what might happen if you just communicate with one another.”

Lucas looked back and forth between the two of them. “You’re not going to stop until I text him, are you?”

Arthur and Yann looked at each other for a moment, then shook their heads in unison. “Nah, probably not.”

Lucas sighed deeply. “Fine.”

He took out his phone and pulled up Eliott’s number, the last message Eliott had sent him still jabbing him in the heart. He tried to ignore the feelings it brought up as he typed out a message. “What should I say?”

Yann contemplated for a moment. “Say… ‘I saw the drawing you left in the common room.’”

Lucas began to type.  _ I saw the drawing you left in the common room. Can we talk? _

He showed his friends before sending but Yann stopped him before he could push the button. “What’s wrong? It’s what you told me to say.”

“Delete ‘can we talk’. You want to talk to him, but you don’t want him to know that. He can’t be totally off the hook. If you text him ‘can we talk’, you’re basically saying you’ve forgiven him,” Yann said. Basile nodded as if he were the one who thought of the idea. 

_ But I have forgiven him _ , Lucas realized, the thought shocking him the moment it entered his mind. He’d forgiven Eliott the moment he saw that drawing, made for Eliott’s eyes only. Eliott would have no reason to lie to himself about Lucas. Regardless, he agreed, “Ok, ‘I saw the drawing you left in the common room.’ Smiley face? Is that too much?”

Yann let out an exasperated laugh. “Dude! No feelings, straight up. Save the smileys for some other time. Just ‘I saw the drawing you left in the common room.’ Done.”

“Done,” Lucas repeated, retyping the message. He sent it before he could overthink it again. 

**Lucas:** I saw the drawing you left in the common room.

He tucked his phone in his back pocket, heart fluttering anxiously. There was silence for a moment, then a vibration. He pulled his phone back out quickly and read the screen. “It’s from him.”

**Eliott:** I’m sorry, you weren’t meant to see that. I know what you said the other day, but can I explain? What are you doing now?

Yann and Arthur exchanged a celebratory glance. Basile raised his hands for high fives, but everyone ignored him. “What do I say now?” Lucas asked anxiously. 

“Say… ‘I’m painting the common room’,” Arthur suggested. Yann nodded his approval. 

“Ok…” Lucas said, typing again, “Should I tell him to call me?”

“No! You want him to call, but you have to seem nonchalant about it. Send this text just as Arthur said, and I guarantee he’ll call you,” Yann explained. Lucas nodded. “Ok…”

**Lucas:** I’m painting the common room

They waited five minutes. Then ten. 

“Check to see if you have service, mine always goes out in here,” Basile offered helpfully. Lucas checked his phone, noting the full bars in the corner of the screen.

“I have service.”

“What about a typing bubble? Maybe he’s trying to figure out what to say.”

“No typing bubble.”

Basile sighed in defeat. Lucas tried not to feel too disappointed. He should have known better. “This is just how he is,” Lucas said with a grimace, “I don’t know why I expected any different.”

They were all silent for a moment too long. Lucas could almost feel their disappointment in the air. A bang sounded from somewhere outside the foyer, making them all jump in surprise. A few seconds later, the door to the foyer opened to reveal a slightly windswept Eliott, not even wearing his signature jacket. The four of them blinked at him in shock, as he blinked at them in shock. 

“I didn’t know… I thought you were alone,” Eliott said hesitantly, looking half as confident as usual. Basile and Arthur were staring at Eliott with wide eyes, Yann with a cocky half smirk. Yann clapped his hands. “Basile, Arthur, and I were on our way out anyway. Another day, another party, you know,” he said, using Arthur’s earlier words. 

Eliott still hadn’t taken his eyes off Lucas, who hadn’t taken his eyes off of Eliott. 

“Right, well, we’ll be on our way then. Got somewhere we’ve got to be now, sorry,” Yann grabbed his jacket and made his way to the door, pulling Basile behind him. Arthur followed quickly after, raising his eyebrows suggestively at Lucas one last time before closing the door behind him. It was only after they were gone that Eliott seemed to register what had just happened.

“They didn’t have to leave-- I’m sorry, I just-- I guess I assumed you were alone,” he stammered. 

Lucas shook his head. “It’s all good.”

Neither one of them said a word for a good minute, staring into each other’s eyes, hearts, and souls. “I’m sorry about that drawing,” Eliott said at last, “I know you told me to let go. I just, I couldn’t. I can’t.”

Lucas took a tentative step towards Eliott. “I was angry. You listened to me spew all that shit at you and I didn’t even have the decency to listen to what you had to say.”

“I don’t blame you for that at all. I wouldn’t have listened to me either.”

Lucas’ face softened, and so did Eliott’s. In a parallel universe Lucas had already kissed Eliott. In another one Lucas had never texted Eliott in the first place. He wondered if Eliott was thinking about what their parallel selves were doing right then as well. 

“I know I don’t deserve it, but can you forgive me?” Eliott asked slowly. Lucas’ eyes flicked up to meet Eliott’s once more. 

“Not quite.”

Eliott’s face fell, but there was a resignation in it, as if that was what he had been expecting. Lucas walked over to the cans of paint and picked one up. “I’ll forgive you if you help me with this. I have no fucking clue what I’m doing.”

Eliott lit up once Lucas finished speaking, looking more himself than Lucas had seen him in a long time. He had missed Eliott,  _ this _ Eliott, so much more than he realized. Eliott held out his hand for the paint can and Lucas made his way over, removing the lid before reaching Eliott. 

“I’m sorry too,” Lucas said, once they were toe to toe. Eliott smiled, but creased his eyebrows. “What for?”

“This,” Lucas said, standing on his toes and dumping the can of paint on Eliott’s head. 

“Lucas, what the hell!” Eliott screamed, wiping paint from his face. Lucas dropped the empty can and ran to the other side of the room before Eliott could get over his shock enough to be angry. Seeing Eliott covered in orange paint, shock eminent in his blue gray eyes, Lucas burst out laughing. Eliott wiped more paint from his face where it had dripped down from his hair and Lucas saw a smile playing across his face. 

“You’re going to pay for that,  _ dude _ ,” Eliott said, making his way across the room, paint dripping with every step. Lucas easily sidestepped him and hopped over the couch to avoid being covered in paint as well. He was laughing to the point of hysterics, something that Eliott seemed equal parts amused and exasperated by. “Stop laughing! You’re going to have to clean this up, you know. And buy Daphné more paint.”

This only made Lucas laugh harder, for some reason. “Shit, Daphné is going to murder me!”

They both burst into laughter once more, tears streaming down Lucas’ face for the millionth time that week, but at least it was because he was happy this time. 

“Fuck!” Eliott yelled, causing Lucas to stop laughing immediately. 

“What’s wrong?” Lucas asked, voice laced with concern.

“I think I got paint in my eye… can you come look for me? Fuck, it burns,” Eliott pleaded. 

Shit. Lucas hurried across the room and got close to where Eliott was kneeling on the newspaper covered ground, carefully avoiding all the paint. He kneeled down to meet Eliott, looking into his eyes. They were clear as could be. He breathed a sigh of relief. “You’re good.”

Eliott smiled, but it wasn’t the smile Lucas was expecting. Instead of a relieved smile, his mouth twisted into a mischievous smirk. His hands dipped into the blue paint sitting on the floor beside them. Lucas realized what was happening a moment before is happened, barely having time to brace himself before Eliott brought his hands up and smeared paint all over Lucas’ face and into his hair. 

Lucas breathed out a short, shocked gasp, wiping the paint from his own eyes. As soon as they were clear enough that he could open them, he saw Eliott’s playful eyes staring back at him, a single eyebrow raised, smirk still on his face. 

He didn’t know which one of them moved first, only that they met in the middle, mouths crashing together, tasting like paint. Lucas hoped briefly that this paint wasn’t toxic, but soon forgot all his concerns as Eliott ran his paint covered hands through Lucas’ hair. Lucas repeated the motion, gripping Eliott’s hair like his life depended on it.

Eliott pushed him down onto the newspaper, accidentally knocking over another can of paint as he did so. Lucas laid down right in the middle of the spilled paint, but found that he didn’t mind one bit. He relieved Eliott of his paint soaked shirt and Eliott returned the favor, different colors of paint now mixing on their bare skin. Lucas reached over to move one of the other cans out of the way, but given his position, he only succeeded in knocking it over and allowing the green to mix with the already spilled orange, blue, and red. This would be hell to clean up, but Lucas couldn’t find it in himself to care. 

Eliott’s lips felt so right against his that he couldn’t believe he had almost convinced himself that he could live without this. Eliott’s hands traced Lucas’ ribs, the paint on his fingers leaving trails of color as they went. Lucas pulled Eliott close to him, kissing his lips, his neck his collarbone, his chest. They had both been starving, waiting for the other to fill the void in their hearts. 

Eliott pinned Lucas’ hands down and left a trail of kisses down his neck to his chest, then down lower, only stopping at the waistband of his jeans. Lucas shivered with each kiss, breath coming out in short gasps. 

After a marathon of kissing, touching, breathing in one another, basking in the comfort of being together, Lucas pulled himself back to reality, laying beside Eliott on the newspaper. “We’re at school,” he said, before bursting out laughing. Eliott giggled beside him.

“Fuck. How are we going to explain this to Daphné?” Eliott managed between laughs. 

Lucas shook his head against the floor. “Let’s worry about that tomorrow.”

“And what are we worrying about tonight?” Lucas could hear the grin in Eliott’s voice as he spoke. 

“Tonight,” Lucas sighed, “We’re worrying about taking a shower. I happen to have a very good one at my flat.”

He turned his head to face Eliott, raising his eyebrows. Eliott’s face broke into an even wider grin. “That sounds like an  _ excellent _ idea,” he agreed with much more composure in his voice than was apparent on his face. They shared one last kiss on the ground before standing and grabbing their paint covered shirts, pulling the crunchy fabric back on over their equal paint stained torsos. 

On the way out the door Lucas risked a glance back at the room and winced at the damage. There was paint of all colors everywhere. There was even, he realized with horror, a few handprints in the places he and Eliott had pinned each other down, kissing without a care in the world. 

“Tomorrow,” Eliott whispered, taking Lucas’ hand in his and leading him out of the room. 

_ Tomorrow _ , Lucas agreed in his mind. For now, all he was going to focus on was the beautiful boy beside him holding his hand and looking at him like he shone with the light of a thousand stars.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr: @livvyblxckthxrn


End file.
